The present invention relates to basketball rim assemblies, and particularly to such assemblies designed to alleviate excessive loads applied to the rim.
One of the problem areas in modern day basketball is the abuse to which a basketball rim and backboard may be subjected, when a player executes a "dunk" shot. In some instances, when the player has completed the dunk shot and is falling toward the ground, the player will grab the rim to retain his balance or possibly break the fall. Also, it sometimes happens that the player will subject the rim to considerable impact loads in the execution of the dunk shot by the player slamming his arms downwardly against the rim as he is thrusting the ball downwardly through the hoop.
In some instances the forces exerted on the rim by the various executions of the dunk shot cause the rim itself to deform. A more serious problem is that the glass backboard to which the rim is mounted will sometimes shatter under the forces resulting from the dunk shots. To alleviate this problem, there have been proposed various release devices which permit the backboard to move away from its support structure to cushion the impact of the load. One approach to alleviate this problem has been to mount the rim to the backboard by means of a spring mounting that urges the rim to be held in its horizontal playing position. When a downward force is exerted on the rim sufficient to overcome the force of the spring, this spring deflects downwardly. When the downward force is released (e.g. by the player who has grasped the rim releasing the rim from his grip), the spring causes the basket to return to its playing position. The rim assembly can be provided with damping means to cushion the movement of the rim back to its return position.
There are yet other devices which have a mechanical release system in addition to a return spring. In such devices, the release mechanism rigidly holds the hoop or rim in its playing condition until a downward force of a predetermined magnitude is exerted on the rim. Then the mechanical release gives way, permitting the hoop to rotate downwardly, after which the spring returns the hoop to its horizontal playing position.
While such devices have greatly alleviated the problems encountered from the impact forces exerted on the rim, the problems are not solved totally. It is desirable that the release mechanism be arranged so that it will not give way until there is a fairly substantial downward load on the rim (e.g. possibly a two hundred pound downward force on the front of the rim), since the rim must be held with sufficient rigidity so as to have proper rebound characteristics. In fact, under the current rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the releasable rim is required to sustain a downward force of up to 230 pounds before giving way. Also, it is not desirable to have the rim release under rather small impact loads, since this might be somewhat disruptive of normal game play. Thus, even though the impact loads are alleviated to a large extent, the repetition of these impact loads still has a weakening effect on the backboard. Thus it is still possible for backboards to shatter, even though release mechanisms are employed. With glass backboards which are commonly in use today, the shattering of the board is associated with a certain amount of danger, since it results in a scattering of glass fragments in the playing area. Also, the clean-up and replacement of the board can cause a very long delay in the game.
Further, the basketball rims with release mechanisms are relatively expensive, and thus beyond the reach financially of many institutions that provide basketball hoops (e.g. high schools, boys' clubs, YMCA's and similiar organizations). In those situations, there is a strong need to somehow provide the basketball rim assembly with means to prevent the impact forces on the rim from transmitting destructive forces into the backboard to cause the backboard to break or shatter.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide a basketball rim assembly that alleviates to a substantial extent the effect of impact forces on the rim imparting destructive forces into the backboard, which rim assembly is well adapted to be used with releaseable rims, and also adapted to be used with rims not having a release mechanism.
It is a further object to provide such an assembly which can utilize as part of the assembly conventional components of rim assemblies already in existence.